Mary and Martha

St. Augustine used the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) as an example of how the contemplative life was superior to the active life. Well, I don't want to take on St. Augustine, but I have often thought that this interpretation is one way to look at it.

I think another way to see this story is that Mary and Martha are actually two sides of one person. I'm not saying that Mary and Martha are make believe characters that are symbolic. I believe that they were two, very real sisters. I believe that their juxtaposition, however, demonstrates a dual reality that exists in all of us.

Martha was so busy serving the Lord, that she forgot to listen to him.

How many of us have done that? We get so busy serving the Lord in our work, family, church, community, that we forget to take time to just sit still at his feet and hear him speak to us. We take St. Paul's injunction to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) as an excuse to never sit down with scripture, meditation, spiritual reading, and make time to listen to the Lord. We say that we "pray at every moment of the day even when we're doing other things." We should be doing that, but let me ask you this. If every time you wanted to have a serious, heart-to-heart conversation with someone you love, that person said, "Sure, we can talk while I'm at work (or doing laundry or fixing supper or watching TV or ministering or fill in the blank with any other activity), how that would that make you feel?

Jesus wants to speak to our hearts. He wants us to set aside the activity, even the ministry activities in which we participate, to have some time to just sit with him, at his feet.

Here's what Mary knew that Martha didn't. Jesus was a cool guest. When it was time to help fix supper, he would have said, "Hey, what can I do to help?" When it was time to clean up afterwards, he would have said, "Here, let me bring the dishes to the sink for you." When it was time to be involved in the activity, he would have been there, hands on, side by side with Mary and Martha. It wasn't time. It was time for Martha to set aside her active service of the Lord to be still in his presence for a while.

Jesus wants to spend time with us. The Lord of the Universe wants to be with us. Can you imagine that? We are important enough to him that he emptied himself to be with us. Is he important enough to us to set aside time to be with him, to have our attention solely focused on him, for just a little while each day?